Rye's Hixon advances to quarterfinals at N.H. Junior Golf tourney

SALEM — The main event at the New Hampshire Junior Golf Championship has evolved into Connor Greenleaf and his seven challengers.

Mike Zhe

SALEM — The main event at the New Hampshire Junior Golf Championship has evolved into Connor Greenleaf and his seven challengers.

And Tom Hixon of Rye is glad to be one of those challengers.

Hixon, who plays at Wentworth By The Sea, qualified for the championship flight with a qualifying round of 1-over-par 72 at Campbell's Scottish Highlands on Monday morning, and then took a 3-and-1 win from Nathan Roth of Hanover in the opening round of match play in the afternoon to reach the quarterfinals.

He'll play Mark Mancini of Atkinson CC this morning, with the winner likely getting a crack at presumptive favorite Greenleaf in the afternoon semifinals.

"My goal is to make the final four and see what happens," said Hixon, who attended St. Thomas Aquinas for 2½ years before enrolling at the Lee Westwood Golf Academy in Florida. "Connor Greenleaf's a great player. I hope people would think I'm one of the other guys to beat here."

In recent years, State Junior champions have made some big splashes. Chelso Barrett of Keene, who won in 2010 and '12, was the runner-up at the U.S. Junior Amateur in 2011. Joe Leavitt of Atkinson, the 2011 champ, won the New Hampshire Amateur last summer.

The Boston College-bound Greenleaf fits the mold. Last summer, he reached match play at the U.S. Junior Am at the Golf Club of New England in Stratham. On Monday he scorched the Campbell's course for a qualifying 66 to earn medalist honors by five strokes.

"This tournament definitely screams his name," said Mancini, a Methuen, Mass., resident who attended Central Catholic High School with Greenleaf for a year.

Eight months ago, Hixon gave Greenleaf a chase at the Division II schoolboy golf championship, leading for a spell but coming up two strokes short in the 36-hole individual competition.

At a U.S. Challenge Cup event at Old Marsh CC in Wells, Maine, in May, featuring some of the best players in the Northeast, Hixon beat Greenleaf — and the talented field — by shooting 73-73-146.

"I have some confidence against him," said Hixon. "I'd love to get the opportunity to play with him."

First, he had to take care of his Monday afternoon business against Roth, on an exposed course with 90-degree heat weighing down on everyone. Up two at the turn after starting on the back nine, he extended his lead to 3-up when his opponent missed the green long and bogeyed the 1st.

Hixon birdied the 454-yard, par-5 2nd hole to go 4-up but took a while to put his opponent away. He made bogey from the bunker on the par-3 7th to see his lead dip to two, but won the par-4 8th to close out the match.

"I just had a few errant tee shots that hurt me on the holes he won," said Hixon. "It was a battle. It was a lot of fun out there and I'm excited to be in tomorrow."

"His game was a little shaky today but his short game was on point," said Mancini, who played his match in the same foursome. "He was making a lot of putts, a lot of clutch putts."

In his morning qualifying round, Hixon got off to a sluggish start, bogeying three of his first eight holes, but played the back nine in 1-under to finish at 72, good for fifth place alone an comfortably among the top 16 that would move on to match play in the championship flight.

Another Wentworth player, Lukas Linemayr of Hampton, missed out on qualifying by a shot, his 77 leaving him in a tie for 18th.

Starting on the back side, on a course he'd never played, he shot 42, losing — he estimated — four golf balls. But he rallied on the front, making a couple birdies and giving just one shot back, but just missing the cut.

"I just missed fairways today," said Linemayr. "I didn't know where the ball was supposed to go, where I was supposed to hit it, so I lost balls. ...; I've just got to dial that in and I'll be fine from there."

Other players qualifying for match play in the lesser flights were Alex Bickford of Portsmouth (81, second flight), Garrett Zorn of Sagamore-Hampton (81) and Jack Dayton of Abenaqui CC (82) in the third flight, Eric Evans (83) and Mike Brabazon (84) of Portsmouth CC and Aaron Rancourt (84) of Pease GC in the fourth flight, Joseph Woods of Breakfast Hill (86) in the fifth flight, and Eric Keilty (91) and Wil Saunders (95) of Portsmouth CC in the sixth flight.

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